F-150 Lightning Owner Claims Electrify America Charger 'Fried' His Truck.

A Ford F-150 Lightning owner claims an Electrify America charging station bricked his truck shortly after plugging in for a juice-up while 1000 miles from home, he said in a series of tweets on Sunday and Monday.

Eric Roe posted a tweet on Sunday showing his black F-150 Lightning being towed away from a charging station after the screen on the charger went black. He was on vacation with his family, including two dogs, at the time.

"Plugged the Lightning to the EA Charger, started to charge, heard a loud boom, and the charger went dark and the Lightning threw up a bunch of error codes and wouldn’t start," Roe tweeted. "Couldn’t even shift into neutral."

The truck was towed to Power Ford Lincoln of Newport, Oregon, according to Roe. The dealership told him the 12-volt battery, which powers most of the pickup's accessories, will have to be replaced before it could do a full diagnosis on what went wrong. Moreover, the dealership claims the 12-volt battery is a "special battery" with no availability ETA.

A Ford spokesperson said in Roe's Twitter replies the company is escalating the situation to engineering experts to "do what we can to help," and confirmed as much in a statement to Road & Track. The spokesperson also told us it's investigating the issue in conjunction with Electrify America. A spokesperson for the charging company told MotorTrend it's "investigating the unfortunate issue experienced by Eric Roe and have reached out to him."

https://autos.yahoo.com/f-150-...laims-151000867.html

not ready for prime time - let the buyer beware

Guess he filled it with Gasoline Electricity instead of Diesel Electricity. With a Combustion engine fill a Diesel engine with gasoline and it will blow within a minute or two of starting. Apparently there is the same sort of thing with Electrics.

BTW the above is sarcasm. The moral here is the Early Adopters will pay a price for their ambitions. So, any bets on the cost for that battery, I'm guessing about 45,000 bucks. I'll also note that one of the more prevalent auto related thefts down the road will be these batteries. Last oil change I was told that before any body repairs are done on an electric the battery pack is removed and placed on a trickle charging station away from the body shop.

I have zero sympathy. Taking a road trip with that piece of shit. SMH

"while 1000 miles from home" - first mistake, one less zero is what he should have done.

I think it sucks, if true.

The truck is an interesting concept, and if it works as well as our Tesla that would be pretty cool.

I bet there's more to the story, I don't know, I don't care. Politics really is ruining EVERYTHING.

I'm no fan of EVs, but this stuff happens with gas vehicles, too. Local service station got shut down this month after a bunch of people got gas there and then their cars died a few miles down the road. The state came out to inspect the station and found water in the fuel storage tanks, so they got shut down. No word yet on whether or not they will be covering the costs of the damaged vehicles or tow fees.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I'm no fan of EVs, ...

There's nothing wrong with them. It's another technology. Everyone's problem with them is the same problem with everything. Some asshole wants to make it a political agenda or mandate some bullshit so he can get rich.

The real issue is that there ain't enough resources for everyone in the world to have and run one.

That's actually true for ICE cars too. And it's always been so...

The battery packs themselves won’t be stolen separately like a catalytic converter. There’s too much work and time involved in separating them from the vehicle even if you don’t care about destroying the vehicle. It’ll be easier to steal the whole car.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I'm no fan of EVs, but this stuff happens with gas vehicles, too.

Yes, but the difference is that you can generally short haul most any gas operated vehicle to the nearest local mechanic and get it fixed in a few days for a reasonable cost. You can't even get parts for the new EV stuff, even if you can find someone capable of diagnosing and fixing things.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
So, any bets on the cost for that battery, I'm guessing about 45,000 bucks. I'll also note that one of the more prevalent auto related thefts down the road will be these batteries. Last oil change I was told that before any body repairs are done on an electric the battery pack is removed and placed on a trickle charging station away from the body shop.

The “12-volt battery, which powers most of the pickup's accessories” is not the main huge lithium battery pack that makes the car go.

quote:

Originally posted by DoctorSolo:

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I'm no fan of EVs, ...

There's nothing wrong with them. It's another technology. Everyone's problem with them is the same problem with everything. Some asshole wants to make it a political agenda or mandate some bullshit so he can get rich.

The real issue is that there ain't enough resources for everyone in the world to have and run one.

That's actually true for ICE cars too. And it's always been so...

To say it another way, the real issue is that the EV is not ready to be the primary vehicle. It's ready to be a 2nd vehicle that is plugged in every night at home or a fun weekend sports car, but you still need an ICE as primary vehicle if you do 200+ mile drives. Even if the charger hadn't fried the Lightning in the article, the driver had jumped through a lot of hoops to be 1000 miles from home with an EV.

I had an Hyundai SUV EV as a rental car in Toronto in September. Only vehicle left at rental lot and hotel didn't have a charger. In all my years of being a high tier frequent flyer, this was the first time I ever had to watch YouTube to figure out how to do something basic (i.e. refuel) a rental. 59 hours to charge off 110V, 9 hours on normal 220V that someone would have in garage, and 2 levels of fast charger (1.5 hour is fastest). Restaurant 2 doors down from hotel had the 9 hour version of a charger station, but I'm not a selfish ass so I only used it while I'm dining there. Having an EV made the business trip more unnecessarily complex.

If I owned that Hyundai SUV EV that I rented, I wouldn't be able to visit my buddy in Dallas without finding a fast charger because I wouldn't be there for 59 hours for the 110 V at his place.

When consumers combine prices like $96k for a Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum Edition and then $35,960 for a replacement battery, those numbers are staggering and might send potential buyers running for the hills.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When your Toyota Corolla fails to start you are annoyed, but can probably get it fixed. For these prices I would be beyond angry.

Is it really $36,000 to replace the battery pack? I wouldn’t buy one if the battery pack cost half that to replace.

THe Hummer EV's are failing as bad as the Ford Bronco engines.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
I have zero sympathy. Taking a road trip with that piece of shit. SMH

lol

https://pickuptrucktalk.com/20...0-lightning-battery/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For Trapper

Wooden structures burned to the ground left and right in the gaslight era. Our technology has "advanced" so far, we are going to have a renaissance of buildings burning, all thanks to our "so green" battery-powered cars and gizmos. Remember all the hoverboard fires a few years back? Hell, those things caught fire just sitting in a corner, not even powered on.

Well, that was nothing compared to what's coming. Houses will burn down with remarkable frequency, usually starting in the garage area. I wouldn't want an automobile dealership with, say, 75 EVs sitting on a lot. Which one will it be? Which. One? One of those cars will combust spontaneously, and then it will spread...

I can't be the only one to see this coming.

I bet the resale on the lightning is going to be poor after 5 years or so. Who is going to want to potentially eat the price of a new battery on a used lightning.
I found the current price on both batteries. Also experts say the battery will lose 2-3% of range each year.

Extended range battery $35,960
Standard range battery, is currently priced at $28,556 plus labor.

For the F-150 Lightning, Ford states in the manual, the “battery is covered for 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first, retaining a minimum of 70% of its original capacity over that period.”

https://pickuptrucktalk.com/20...0-lightning-battery/

quote:

Extended range battery $35,960
Standard range battery, is currently priced at $28,556 plus labor.

Christ, I've never even paid that much for an entire new truck. (That was a long time ago. Now, almost any new car, let alone a truck, is out of my financial reach.)